FSpaceRPG article

While Pluto is well known to hold a US Aerospace Naval base in orbit, it is also the site of a range of NASA backed planetary survey missions on the surface of Pluto and it’s large moon Charon.

The presence of the regular supply runs to the naval base, also serve the exploration teams.

Planet based telescopes and orbital ones have provided extra aberration coverage, and have been part of a coordinated network looking at exoplanets in the leadup to interstellar missions.

The most important part of the naval base operations is a large array of far orbit radio telescopes that operate as an array designed to ease drop on alien communications. A lot of secrecy surrounded the data collected and analysis, but in general such activity was accepted by the public given the hysteria caused by the Mech Assault in the mid 21st century.

In 2172AD information was declassified that the array had picked up signals from the Aronhi, but little details have been released.

Pluto is not the only Kuiper belt naval base. Many other spacefaring nations considered a status symbol to establish similar scale operations to the Americans. China, Europe and Russia all established similar facilities at large Kuiper belt dwarf planets. India was one of the only other countries confirmed to have set up similar scale operations before the invention of hyperdrive and the increasing ease of access to the region.

All these bases are known to serve as listening posts, scientific stations and service hubs from which deeper exploration around the Kuiper Belt and out into the Oort cloud could be supported.

There is speculation that some of these stations, or less significant ones established by other nations may have been used for secret attempts at sunlight manned missions to the nearest stars. No evidence of such missions exist in the public record - but enough supplies and personnel remain unaccounted for that conspiracy theorists haven’t dropped the idea in popular media.

What is known is that deep range missions lasting years and decades were scheduled into eh Oort cloud and some of those missions are still active.

During the Serpenti War, America, China and Russia reinforced their naval bases with orbital defence systems, and Russia undertook armouring activities of the Alpha series space station it had deployed to support it’s base. While Stotatl scouting parties were known to have made it deep into human space during hostilities, nothing on public record notes they made it to Sol system, although military records from these bases are all sealed from that period onwards - giving more fuel to conspiracy theorists that some other events have transpired on the edge of the system.